Consider the poor anarchist. You spend your entire life espousing your ridiculous ideology and at the very moment you will finally get maximum attention and can cavort for national television cameras dressed as Guy Fawkes and spouting Bakunin (if you know who he was), immortalized forever at a presidential convention, you’re dumped on by some lousy hurricane, ruining the whole thing.

You’re waving the black flag and trying to foment revolution while all the media are indoors, interviewing each other. Chickens!

And — to make matters worse — if the hurricane is a serious emergency, you will have to rely on the federal government to evacuate you. What humiliation for an anarchist!

And, yes, the anarchists — in fact demonstrators of any sort — have been as scarce as kangaroos in the Arctic at the Republican Convention or its environs today. They evidently don’t come out in the rain and, if anything, it’s only going to get worse. So much for the Occupy movement or whatever they want to call it.

Not that it’s a lot better for the rest of us. If there’s one thing that has dominated the talk, not to mention the hearts and minds, of most people here in Tampa for the convention, it is the tremendously stringent security, far worse than what I remember from St. Paul in 2008.

Only two routes, roughly a mile and a half apart, give you entry to the convention facilities. All other streets are blocked off with staggering numbers of security personnel — soldiers, police from various venues, Secret Service, other security services, private services, etc. — on horseback, motorcycle, bicycle, automobile, and, of course, on foot. There appear to be vastly more of them than there are of us, media and delegates. At some angles from the convention perimeter, Tampa resembles a military encampment.

One insider in a position to know told me that over 60 security organizations were involved. What could be the reason for this? It’s hard to believe it’s the threat of those so-called anarchists who seem to be nowhere in evidence (or washed down a drain). Or is it?

(Yes, I know. According to one report linked by Drudge, one group of 200 demonstrators, later reduced to 100, did show up somewhere — a minuscule number in a metropolitan area that approaches three million in a country of well over three hundred million. Ten times as many people are in line for pizza at Ray’s on a bad day.)

62 Comments, 33 Threads

My daughter is working at the Starbucks/Embassy Suites across from the convention center. She goes through six checkpoints to get to the hotel parking garage. They are working twelve hour days to keep everyone caffeinated!
Ah, it’ll just be a little rain and some wind, no big deal, this is nothing. We’re used to it on a daily basis with thunderstorms and higher winds than you’ll see from Isaac. The rain is gonna keep it cooler, but very humid. Summer in Florida, ya gotta love it! The winter more than makes up for hurricane season!

Maybe your Democrat-sponsored protection is a marked effort to get you right wingers used to their form of government protection? Part of the larger nanny state, the rain, wind and desolate fields are a paean to all the dark movies depicting rapacious over lording government?

Thrilled that Roger mentioned Bakunin. How many PJM readers will get that reference, that does indeed apply to the Occupy Movement. I wrote about Marx’s anarchist rivals here: http://clarespark.com/2012/08/16/marx-rivals-and-our-enigmatic-president/. And it isn’t popular heavy metal bands that carry this tradition: some of our greatest American writers, reacting to the Great War, carried this anti-urban, populist tradition. I refer of course to the expatriates.

I consider expatriates to be traitors to our country. They should have nothing to say about anything that happens in this country. If they hate this country so much, they are willing to live elsewhere then they should surrender their citizenship and all of the rights that go along with citizenship, namely voting rights. A pox on them all.

With all due respect, that’s just silly. The biggest class of expats we have work for the U.S. Military as civilian contractors and government employees; without these people, the military could not exist. Another large group of expats work for corporations that ensure our free trade with sometimes-hostile companies. Most expats are loyal American citizens who for various reasons find they must live outside the country for a significant period of time. Only a few are weasels who bash America.

We need to work harder to ensure expats’ voices are heard, not work to silence them. They want to have a free country to return to some day.

With all due respect the classes of people that you list are not expatriots. Expatriots are those who leave their own country and establish citzenship in another. One might logically think (since “no man can serve two masters”) that they would automatically lose their American citizenship by doing so. One might think as well that aliens who work on work permits in the US temporarily, then return permanently to their native land, would also lose their US benefits, SS and Medicare, but evidently they do not.

All total (‘totalitarian’) Conformists, the communazis, are essentially the same, the main difference being a pretended “control” but not outright ownership of the main industrial complexes (a carefully-crafted imprecision that ignores that control IS ownership) by the fascists, whereas the communists are slightly more truthful in declaring outright state seizure and ownership of said industries.

Communists ARE fascists – they’re both only totalitarian CONFORMISTS, who pretend to believe in group rights, not individual ones.

Fascists are indeed left-wing; Adolf led the National SOCIALIST Democratic Worker’s Party. The “right” wing believes in individual rights, not in group rights.

Today’s “conservatives” are only trying to “conserve” what “classic” liberalism gained for us all: individual rights and freedoms.

“Our movement took a grip on cowardly Marxism and from it extracted the meaning of socialism. It also took from the cowardly middle-class parties their nationalism. Throwing both into the cauldron of our way of life there emerged, as clear as a crystal, the synthesis-German National Socialism.”

“…In 1927, Hitler said: “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”

Several football fields apart? Come on, I live here and it’s just a minor walk.

It’s nearly 6 am, and we’re getting one of the outer bands of the storm. Because of the wind, the rain is being blown through some of the walls of my “historic” Victorian house. Since last month’s storm, I’ve been trying to find reputable contractors who can repair and seal this place up, but for a city prone to heavy rains every summer, there don’t seem to be any. The rules are very strict in this neighborhood, and the preservationists insist on preserving every ancient bit of wood, no matter how crummy, and every ancient window, no matter how fragile. Replace a door? Not if they can help it, unless it’s an exact duplicate of the original, even if the original is absolutely hideous.

I live about six blocks from the convention center. At least the rain is keeping the demonstrators from coming down here and making things even more difficult.

One can almost hear the conversation between preservationists and folks who actually lived in that era:

Citizen: you mean there are better ways of making doors and walls so that rain does not come in?
Preservationist: yes, but those run counter to the character of the area, they violate the spirit of the time period.
Citizen: dear lady, air conditioning violates the spirit of the time but none of us are against improving comfort.
Preservationist: but this ruins the character of the buildings.
Citizen: the character, as you call it, is the material we had to work with at the time. Things change. People used to start fires by rubbing sticks together but we don’t do that anymore.
Preservationist: but this ruins the buildings, it changes them.
Citizen: if by change you mean improve, then you are right. Otherwise, you are mad. On the other hand, you are welcome to live as folks did in the past yourself.
Preservationist: but the past!
Citizen: I don’t want to live in the past. You can.

And when a primitive Tampa house is restored to its original hideousness, the owners are given a big banner that says “Preserved” to hang on it. You see them everywhere. I’m just waiting so see them hanging on some of the old trailers. In Tampa, any structure fifty years old or older is considered historic and priceless. Of course, the preservationists didn’t come up with this nonsense till after PBS started broadcasting “This Old House” in the 1980s. Suddenly, saving old junk was a Yuppie imperative.

What good is a house with character if it’s miserable to live in? The cost of renovating these dreary places according to city requirements is far beyond that of building new luxury homes in the most expensive neighborhoods.

…and say, when will the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) no longer be needed? Like, are they *ever* going to go away? Or is their presence at airports now forever? ….and just how many terrorists have the TSA apprehended anyway?

Maybe, but the more simplistic answer is that the Obama campaign has seen how the violence at OWS events have hurt the class warfare “message”. The realized they created a monster at OWS and now they are trying to keep it in the cage – reports of convention goers getting beaten/robbed will not lead to Obama’s reelection no matter how much his extreme partisan base may want it to happen.

Not weird at all; the cabal of penthouse pinkos and machine politicians using the Newspaper as its front man has belatedly realized that, if the race riots it has tried to foment actually occur, the ghetto rats will find it easier and safer to sack the Eloi nests in the deep-blue cities than to swarm out to the suburbs and get bloodily repulsed by bitter clingers with firearms.

All other streets are blocked off with staggering numbers of security personnel — soldiers, police from various venues, Secret Service…. Tampa resembles a military encampment …over 60 security organizations involved…trudging down endless chain-link-fenced secure pathways past endless checkpoints in what promises to be drenching rain…
…In other words, welcome to East Berlin circa 1965. Yet GOP attendees seemingly accept it all, along with the poodle media and usual parasites. This is progress? No, but it is America today. And you’re being asked to vote for folks who don’t feel any sense of urgency.
Do explain why the rest of us should feel encouraged.

I suppose he’s just doing for Tampa what he does for himself, in all fairness.

Obama visited us here in West Palm Beach, and he blocked off half the major streets with hordes of police. Made me think I was in a third world country. Even aside from the inconvenience, which was enormous, the optics were terrible.

The whole Presidenital entourage thing seems to have gotten out of control. He has a bullet-proof limo, after all. Why not just have a few cops in front, a few cops alongside, and a few cops in the back, and leave it at that, without closing streets and inconveniencing people?

There must have been thousands of cops involved and oodles of overtime. I sure hope someone in the Obama Administration paid for it since it was an enormous waste of local money and resources.

He has a bullet-proof limo, after all. Why not just have a few cops in front, a few cops alongside, and a few cops in the back, and leave it at that…

As words of art in this domain, “bullet-proof” isn’t really useful. We have too much recent hard experience with IEDs, especially ones that fire self-forging penetrators, for that level of security to be considered even vaguely adequate.

The whole Presidential entourage thing seems to have gotten out of control. He has a bullet-proof limo, after all. Why not just have a few cops in front, a few cops alongside, and a few cops in the back, and leave it at that, without closing streets and inconveniencing people?

That’s what a mayor gets. Cf. Bloomberg in NYC.

Security for the POTUS has to be a bit more extensive. What you describe is a pretty close match for Dealey Plaza, 22 November 1963. The Secret Service do not want a repeat of that.

As for the blocked streets, etc., thank the Clintons. They were the ones who demanded- and got- that level of “cooperation” from local authorities first. Less because of worry about their safety than The Hill insisting that they were entitled to it.

Now, do you seriously believe that Himself, whose conceit and egotism rival Ozymandias, would ever settle for less fawning and evidence of His self-perceived greatness than his SecState?

Not. A. Chance.

This is one more example of why Obama is not only our most inept President, he has also become our most tiresome one.

Its most likely the latter reason — Team Obama is so into visuals they know the images of OWS types clashing with police and/or attacking Republican convention goers would not play well to the swing voters. Fortunately, trust-fund baby anarchists don’t like to protest in the rain, so any Monday-Tuesday problems in Tampa have been dealt with by Gaia.

On the other hand, it wouldn’t be a shock to see some angry faux Tea Party protesters who no other Tea Prty people have ever seen show up in Charlotte next week to say and do bad things towards Obama. Attacks there by OWS types are of little use in the general election. Moby-like protests trying to make those opposed to Obama seeming the Todd Akin Fan Club would be seen by Axe and Plouffe as helping there guy out.

* Executive Order 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.

* Executive Order 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute Industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.

* Executive Order 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit, and the flow of money in U.S. financial institutions in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when the president declares a state of emergency, Congress cannot review the action for six months.

Why do I get the clod, frightening feeling that our Dear Leader for Life, has plans to make the US a gulag while he heads the Politburo? Surely it’s all in my head and I should just takes my meds and be happy.

Folks, may G-d have mercy on this country’s soul if Obamao gets four more years to ENTIRELY wreck and ruin the US.

EO 10990 was issued February 2, 1961, EO 11921 was issued on June 11, 1976, and the others were issued between those dates. So, not to say that the Smartest Administration Ever couldn’t use those EO’s to crack down on the nation in the name of a “National Emergency”, but, in the name of accuracy, they weren’t created by Obama.

However, if I were REALLY being paranoid, what better time to stage a coup than when you have all of your political opponents gathered in one place and surrounded by divisions of security people under your command? Not that I expect that to happen, though…this time….

Just out of curiosity, who exactly is supposed to carry all these executive orders out? Most “Presidents for Life” have a hard core secret police or military to do their bidding. People whose lives and privileges depend on “The Leader”. I see Obamao with a lot of bureaucrats, but few if any of the hard core killers he’s going to need. He has some thugs with nightsticks, but that is not going to get it done. Of course, this may be just another example of his delusions; like Hitler in his bunker, moving around armies that no longer – or his case never did – exist.

Right now it’s not as though you have union thugs taking over state capitals or NBP members ‘guarding’ polling booths against the wrong kind of voter–but that time will come soon enough.

Sir, at least 50% of your population either depends totally or partially on “Dear Leader” for their income. Your country is not too far away from public union-like heavies enforcing their master’s will. And whether it’s Mssr Obama or another, I predict you’re ~10 years away from open fighting on this count.

too many cops of many colors only makes it easier to infiltrate. if i were romney i would trust my safety to anyone but the person wanting the job forever, as you can see by his proliferation of e.o.’s (thanks for the list, spin11) giving himself dictatorial powers. there has never been any need for all these powers before.

let’s face it, he cares not one iota about anything or anyone but himself. during the gulf oil spil it took him what – 2 months to pick up the phone? yeah, he cares about romney’s safety, and the constitution.

God decided the OWS, the giant vaginas, Chic-fil-a Haters, Panthers, Commies and Democrats all Needed a Bath..How much water is that going to take to clean them up ??? I have the boat tied to the side of the House.. Thats how dirty I think they are ~!!!

I’m guessing the massive security isn’t driven by Obama’s folks; it’s the natural inertia of the massive security bureaucracy. All these groups exist — DHS/TSA/FBI/ATF/CBP/ETC — so they do their thing, no expense spared!

Uhm… a question – doesn’t the RNC have to pay for all that security? If so, money spent at “securing the convention” is money that can’t be spent defeating Obama. Plus, money spent in “overtime” is money that can be donated to the Obama Campaign, making it a “Security Stimulus”.

I wonder how much security such conventions had in the 1950s? I’m just not seeing the progress so many others are in wide range of social artifacts in America. People act like the ’50s was some conformist police state but I’m trying to imagine flash mobs beating people at state fairs and I can’t.

I wonder how much security such conventions had in the 1950s? I’m just not seeing the progress so many others are in wide range of social artifacts in America. People act like the ’50s was some conformist police state but I’m trying to imagine flash mobs beating people at state fairs and I can’t.”

Sort of hard to get a flash mob together, using that one phone at home (I speak from experience) – that one of your parents was going to answer. Not to mention that many of the participants in the flash mobs (i.e., black teenagers) would have been too poor to afford something like a cell phone. And their hard working parents wouldn’t have given them their own private phone line in a million years. You didn’t see those flash mobs because it was a different world.

I heard on the news that some Democrat said; “God redirected the tropical storm/hurricane toward Ray Nagin because his lack of action and deflecting blame cost them the governorship for the state of Louisiana.” Just kidding, not that the Dems aren’t thinking it or even saying it, that the news media would ever cover it. I prefer humor to offset the 13th comment and all of this President’s Executive Orders. With 60 agencies involved I doubt seriously they could control a single city in the USA if it came right down to it.

My brother lives in the high rise towers near there and he send some pictures of the water patrol (very sinister looking black boats), helicopters in the air and check points and fences that he can see from his place.

If OWS types show up its bad news, even worse news if they get nowhere near the convention. If they are near the convention, police can keep an eye on them . But if the hurricane hits and people flee to safe areas, the OWS types will probably use it as an advantage to loot the city.

Why not consider the police occupation of this part of my city as a giant pay off to the public workers unions ?? Since sometime on Friday, most major proximal intersections have had two or three (sometimes more) staffed cruisers 24/7. Apparently doing absolutely, completely nothing. all day Friday, Sat, Sun and now Monday. My business directly adjoins two hotel and is near two other larger units in suburban Brandon and the parking lots are overflowing (into our lot) with out of town police. Presumably the Sarosota and Bradenton police are being paid far more than an eight hour shift. The cost of these officers sitting around doing seemingly nothing for the past four days must be monumental.

The perfect metaphor occurred yesterday morning (Sunday 9:30 AM) at the local Publix grocery store on Platt St. Seven or eight “troopers” entered the building which became quite silent. On closer inspection, they were “ordinary”
Hills Co sheriff deputies in desert storm like military uniforms attempting to use the rest rooms. All were equipped to the hilt. No expense spared. Three of the seven were nearly morbidly obese (one women) and their shirts could not be tucked over their panuses (?pani?) into their trousers; I’m uncertain who tied the laces of their unseeable high priced jack boots.

As a follow-up to my previous post, the massive payoffs to the police unions involve not only the deployment of obese traffic and parking Co sherif deputies in full military uniform and weaponry but also the para-military transformation of the Tampa Police department with fully armored antipersonnel vehicles.

After all these very good comments, it appears to me that the answer might be the simplest. With many heavily biased news media lined up having to cover a convention that is designed to show Romney to the less informed in a good light, a cabal like that currently in charge in Washington, might well stage something that the complient media can cover instead of the Republican Convention speakers. NBC,ABC,CBS, et all have left little doubt in anyone’s mind who they are for and I can easily imagine that they would quickly focus on “the public unrest” outside the convention rather than say an appealing first speach from Mrs. Romney. Not trying to be paranoid here, but consider the “news” media we are talking about here.

Today’s WSJ article regarding Tampa’s mayor, Bob Buckhorn, is probably closest to the truth. He admitted his desire (lust) for the fed’s $50 million supplemental security funding. He’s my neighbor and not a bad guy (for a big city Dem pol) but as Shakespeare’s Marc Anthony describes Brutus, yet he is an honorable man. As a Dem pol, the opportunity of funneling fifty million big ones to local public employment unions was irresistible and should prove politically invaluable in the future.

And while not directly related, don’t forget that according to the Tampa Tribune, when Sheriff David Gee retires next year, he will receive a lump payment in excess of $950,000 and a lifelong stipend north of $14,000, per month. The Fed’s mega-bucks allows the mayor to cut the little people into the government piggy bank.

But Buckhorn didn’t get his other big wish. Back in May he demanded suspension of the state’s CCW and self-defense laws during the convention. Fortunately our GOP governor, a proud defender of the 2nd Amendment, told him to get lost.

Of course, the only reason he needed to ask was last year’s amendment to the state’s firearm pre-emption law. Since 1987, cities and counties in Florida have been prohibited from enacting gun laws more restrictive than the state’s. Until last year, though, the law had no teeth — no penalties for violators. As a result, many local governments were openly flouting it. Now the flouters face civil & criminal sanctions, so those laws are being repealed.

I drop a comment each time I like a article on a site or if I have something to contribute to the discussion. It’s triggered by the sincerness communicated in the post I looked at. And on this article Roger L. Simon » Fear and Shame on the Campaign Trail #6 â€” Who’ll Stop the Rain?. I was moved enough to drop a leave a responsea response I actually do have 2 questions for you if you tend not to mind. Could it be only me or do some of the responses appear like they are left by brain dead folks? And, if you are writing on additional social sites, I’d like to follow anything fresh you have to post. Could you list the complete urls of all your communal pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?